Really. If you thought that Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church was bad, you really ain’t seen nothin’ yet until you’ve checked out Paul Hill Days. The Phelpses may be evil in the way that they torment people in their moment of grief with their “God hates fags” hatred, but these people are violent killers in the name of God.

No matter what side of the abortion debate that you happen to come down on, surely you must find this paeon to the murderer Paul Hill as vile as I do. Here’s just a taste:

On July 29th, 1994, Paul Hill boldly defended 31 babies from unspeakable violence by killing a paid assassin and his bodyguard. He was arrested, given a sham trial, and executed as a martyr. On the 13th anniversary of Paul Hill’s act of love and mercy, memorial events will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to honor him as God’s man and our hero.

[…]

Paul Hill went calmly and confidently to the execution chamber. He knew he had right-standing with God, not because of anything he had done, but only because of what Jesus Christ had done for him.

Shame on Children Need Heroes, Street Preach, and Pro-Life Virginia for supporting this travesty, which includes as its highlight a reenactment of the the murder. Children Need Heroes is especially disingenuous in their FAQ, the last question of which is:

Q: If Children Need Heroes thinks the use of force to protect preborn children is Biblically justified, why haven’t you done it?

A: We’re still praying on it. Are you?

Paul Hill was a murderer and terrorist, plain and simple. He murdered a physician with the clear intent of intimidating other physicians. archy is right; the “Paul Hill Days” memorial is clearly intended to send a message to other OB/GYNs that there are still people out there who are willing to kill them to stop them. The same can be said of other two “heroes” praised by Children Need Heroes, including Shelley Shannon, who is proud of bombing abortion clinics, and James Kopp.

I just can’t get the bad taste out of my mouth. I need to move on to a medical or scientific topic tomorrow. Maybe that will help.

I think they belong to the _minority_ of _honest_ anti-abortionists. Indeed, if one _sincerely_ believes that real innocent children are dying during abortions, one should do what one does in other such situations involving … older chldren, or be a bystander during the murder. Basically, those anti-abortionists who don’t try to kill abortion-providers aren’t really serious about fetuses being human beings.

(Which is not to say that we should have more such … “sincere people”. Just the opposite.)

I think they belong to the _minority_ of _honest_ anti-abortionists. Indeed, if one _sincerely_ believes that real innocent children are dying during abortions, one should do what one does in other such situations involving … older chldren, or be a bystander during the murder. Basically, those anti-abortionists who don’t try to kill abortion-providers aren’t really serious about fetuses being human beings.

(Which is not to say that we should have more such … “sincere people”. Just the opposite.)

I dissagree. I believe the death penalty is murder; I believe much of war is murder. I do not set out to kill the perpetrators, however, because that’s also murder.

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
-Gandhi

” Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
-MLK, Jr.

Do you suggest neither of these people honestly believed in their causes?

There are other, better, more powerful ways to show ones passion than violence.

I agree with Warren. They are terrorists, and I think they should be hunted down and executed as terrorists. Love does not work with these people.

I wouldn’t big-note them by calling them Christians. They are religious psychopaths who hide behind Christ and the Bible, the same way Al Qaeda and Hamas and all the rest of that lot hide behind the Koran. The whole point of martyrdom in Christianity is that you die for your beliefs, but you don’t kill for them.

Creatures like this should be publicly exposed as having no real relation to anything that Christ ever stood for. If the theology I learned is anything to go by, this creature is screaming in Hell right now.

Aristradio: while I have no sympathy for the radical environmentalist movement (I am, after all, a working molecular biologist!), I wonder if you can name even one example where a radical environmentalist – as opposed to an animal rights activist or an anitabortionist – has taken a hostage or taken a life that was not his or her own. I can’t, and I personally think that this precludes the use of the word terrorist. I see a basic distinction between crimes against property and a specific intent to injure or kill. Your mileage may vary.

(NB: The unabomber doesn’t count, IMO, as he seems to have no contingency beyond himself, and it’s unclear whether his motives extended in any meaningful sense beyond mental illness.)

The Paul Hills of the world are creating an atmosphere where violence continually perpetuates itself. We’ve not seen the “pro-choice” faction commit any acts of violence against the “pro-life faction, but you can bet that there are people who would do so. I once had occasion to call an anti-abortion talk show on our local public access TV station.

The host was advocating the use of force to stop people from getting abortions and perhaps create armed militias to carry their divine mandate. I then suggested to this person that right wing conservatives are not the only people who are skilled in the use firearms. He said nothing in response.

The bottom line?

The militant anti-abrotionists have sown the seeds of becoming victims of their own “righteous anger”.

Again, another reason I stopped going to church not long after my high school days where I was forced by parental influence.
In all fairness to avid church goers, much like islam, individuals use religion much like so called psychics use cold reading to convince people that they have some sort of insight into the afterworld. These individuals (Hill)share the same basic manipulative traits with the like’s Charles Manson (however Charlie was even more cunning and had murders performed for him). Criminal Sociopaths and NPD’s (narcissitic personality disorder) are often attracted to religious groups or organizations likes moths to a flame.
Remember, they crucified Jesus not becasue he was controversial, but because he was basically a nice guy.

People like these do more harm to the message of Christ than a legion of Osama Bin Ladens could ever do. We are exhorted to love our neighbors. Christ loved sinners, including his executioners, including his betrayers. I know I have a long way to go in learning to love as Christ did, for I have a very hard time loving Paul Hill in light of what he did — and especially since he did it in Christ’s name.

It sounds like a joke: that people would be willing to kill to prevent killing. But it’s not. I even read a webpage once from a group loosely associated with this guy (one of the ones that maintained a “hit list” of abortion providers) and they were actually advocating civil war — which they said would have to start by seizing a missile site so they could have a nuclear deterrent. They actually advocated nuclear war as the only logical solution to abortion…. And to my horror, the site was not a parody. (It was incompetent, meaning these jokers probably couldn’t seize a gun store, let alone a missile silo, but they were serious all the same.)

Remember at the same time how utterly enraged He would have had to be to make that whip and drive the moneychangers out of the temple with it, overturning their tables as he did so. Nor, if I remember my Bible correctly, was he without anger at intolerant jerks like the Pharisees.

Remember you’re not required to love as Christ did – that’s His job. You’re just required to give it your best shot. If you fall short, it’s because you’re only human, which is why he did what he did. Far too many Christians are far too critical of their own imperfections, and far too many of their pastors encourage their self-flagellation. It’s probably why so many of the Christian teenagers and young adults I used to hang out with seemed introspective, moody or depressed; they were constantly reflecting on their failure to measure up to the ideal. Stop it.